Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture

Ivan and I have visited Pskov and seen some of its churches many years ago, before it was inscribed - with Ivan's Dad. We made this town on the Estonian borders an overnight stop when taking the car through the borders and back due to customs reasons. It was a lovely summer afternoon and evening, which added to the beauty and pleasure of the experience.

Since we haven’t been anywhere via an overnight train, one of our favourite modes of travel in Russia, in a long time, we decided to make a weekend trip out of revisiting Pskov and examining its sacral school of architecture a bit closer. And examine we did. Ten churches are inscribed and if you wish to make a proper visit out of it, I recommend marking all of them on a map. Most are a walking distance, except for the Church of Svyatitel Nikolay inside the Snetogorsky monastery. We were overchurched by the time we could visit it and skipped that one, along with Church Rozhdestva Ioanna Predtechi.  

If you had to pick one, I would recommend visiting the Cathedral at the Spaso-Pereobrazhensky Monastery, which has beautiful 12th century frescoes in s very good state. Entrance to the monastery complex is for free, but to get admitted to the Cathedral you have to visit the green “tickets shed” and buy your tickets there. I also very much enjoyed the double church of Pokrova i Rozhdestva ot Proloma. There is no entrace fee for …

Visited this site in July 2019 exactly during the weekend when Pskov was inscribed. However, most local guides were quite sure that Pskov was already inscribed for a while. I concentrated on 10 churches recommended by ICOMOS for inscription. As I understood, there was a bit of mess whether 10 sites or all 18 proposed were finally inscribed. Now the official site shows 10 locations. In overall, Pskov and Nogvorod white churches, not influenced by Mongol invasion, have distinct features (like thick walls, unusual bell towers), as compared to traditional ones. The majority of the monuments date back to 15th and 16th centuries, but the most interesting one, in my opinion, is the oldest – Transfiguration Cathedral of the Spaso-Mirozhsky Monastery has clear Byzantine origins of the 12th century and as the most impressive frescos of all sites. This Cathedral is open from 11:00 until 18:00 and costs 200 rubles. The Cathedral is closed for visit in case of rain, fog, snowfall and high humidity in order to preserve impressive 12th century frescos painted by the Greek masters.  

The Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God of the Snetogorsky Monastery also has some 14th century frescos, but they’re much less preserved and this church is closed for restoration works as of July 2019, we were let in by chance by one of the nuns.

We also managed to enter inside a number of other churches, but they are not very impressive inside, however outside architecture is …

I visited Pskov at the end of my trip to Russia in 2016. I did not expect anything special in Pskov, although wanted to visit this city, with links to the history of Poland and famous city walls. And indeed, massive city walls were the first thing that was outstanding in Pskov. The second one was its kremlin (here called Krom) which was very small comparing to Russian standards (where usually kremlins are quite broad) but one of the niciest. But honestly I had mixed feelings with the historical center – although overall it was fine, it lacked integrity and historical buildings were mixed with much newer ones. It did not help that the weather was rainy that day and at the end I got all wet.

The third outstanding thing about Pskov was the abundance of churches. During my 18-day trip I had visited hundreds of tserkvas, including iconic ones in Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl and other cities of Golden Ring, but I remember the ones in Pskov were special. They were all white with really thick walls – I bet they can survive a nuclear attack. Contrary to most of Golden Ring tserkvas, covered in frescoes, the ones in Pskov had plain white walls and roofs. They reminded me the architecture of Russian Far North, e.g. Solovetsky Islands.

I am not sure how many of now inscribed churches I visited – not so many due to bad weather. I certainly visited Church Vasiliya na gorkie (completely renovated …

Part of my Russian experience was to ride a night train once. I did some digging and found that Pskov was a good destination on my way from Moscow to St. Petersburg as it also allowed me to visit Novgorod along the way. Admittedly, the experience was rather boring: All the Russians on board of the train wanted to sleep and I ended up drinking the beers I brought on my own.

In any case, I made it to Pskov and found a pretty Kreml (or Krom as they call it in Pskov). The weather was gorgeous and I had a nice time visiting and wandering around the city.

Not to be missed is the Mirozhsky Monastery on the other side of the river. The 12th-century artwork by a Greek/Byzantine artist in the chapel is astonishing and survived the Mongols. To me, these together with those in Suzdal were the best wall paintings I have seen in Russia.

[Updated July 2019] I had to update this yet again. The Unesco site today (08 July) shows all locations including Krom / Kreml. Apparently, Icomos recommended to exclude the Krom and focus on the surrounding churches and monasteries. This was approved by the committee. Let's see what happens.

The Mirozhsky Monastery is included. And I think I stumbled into plenty of the other locations spread across the city. So tick done. Still, I don't understand Icomos here at all. Why not simply inscribe a core zone than 10 …